Baby Designs That Rule

Shrinkage in general is never a good thing whether from the warehouse, your bank account or from your favorite sweater. It's also true in design as at best a shrunken-down design ends up being cute but rarely fierce or gorgeous. Fortunately there are exceptions as the following three recent "baby" designs prove that a tailored slim fit look can do wonders at times. Not only do all three do an excellent job of adapting the brand design to their smaller proportions but arguably end up with better and fresher designs than their more expensive brandmates.

Audi A3

The A3 sedan reminds many of the popular fan favorite "B5" Audi A4 based on its size and tidy design. The A3 sedan leans heavily on the current A4 but sharpens up every angle perfectly. It is one of the rare sedans developed out of hatchbacks that actually looks better than its five door counterpart and has a completely own identity. While both are stylish compacts the A3 works the Audi design theme better than its rival CLA does the Mercedes theme.

 

September 2011 Sales Recap

Despite an uncertain economic outlook, September 2011 auto sales were about 10% better than a year ago and September turned out to be one of the best month of the year so far. As in previous months roughly two-thirds of the brands posted better sales than a year ago while Toyota and Honda continued to see their sales slide. Leading the pack was Maserati with an exceptional 46.3 percent improvement. In the mainstream category Chrysler and its truck division Ram posted improvements of 42 and 36% respectively. Powered by the debut of its much talked about American built Passat, Volkswagen was able to increase its sales by over 35% as well. Backing up its promise of great dealership availability Nissan posted a 28.2% sales increase, on the other hand its luxury division Infiniti only managed to better last year's results by 2.1%. Doing well in the luxury category Audi and BMW both posted 19.% sales improvements while Lexus continued to struggle with an 11.5% drop. Take a look at the chart below to see how all of your favorite automakers did in September.

As in previous months Nissan's LEAF outsold Chevy's Volt 1,031 to 723. While GM narrowed the gap in September the Nissan still enjoys a commendable 7,199 to 3,895 yearly sales lead which is easily confirmed on the street with the LEAF being a more common occurrence on the road than the Volt.

Geneva Preview Show

With the Geneva Motor Show only a week away the floodgates have opened and many manufacturers have released images of the cars that they will debut in Geneva. Without a doubt the most highly anticipated Geneva debut is the upcoming Lamborghini LP-700 Aventador. Lamborghini has slowly but surely revealed its upcoming hypercar by showing the engine, suspension, and its carbon fiber monocoque. While Lamborghini has done an excellent job drumming up excitement over the Aventador without revealing too much, a certain European magazine has revealed a glimpse of the real deal. The Aventador will not be the only high powered Geneva debut as Jaguar has unveiled its most extreme version of its XK to date, the 550 horsepower XKR-S. The S adds an additional 40 horsepower and 41 lb-ft of torque to the XKR along with more aggressive styling. Fellow British based Aston Martin will also be revealing its newest model, the Virage, at Geneva as well. The 490 horsepower Virage slots between the DB9 and the DBS performance and style-wise while incorporating the latest chassis improvements to the Aston aluminum platform. There will also be a convertible version called the Virage Volante. Maserati has a high-performance convertible ready for Geneva as well, the GranTurismo Convertible Sport. It features 11 extra horsepower and 15 additional lb-ft of torque along with sportier transmission and suspension tunings and unique styling elements. On the other side of the performance envelop Volkswagen will be showing its Europe-only Golf convertible featuring a soft top roof that needs only 9 seconds to go down.

Click on the photo to launch the gallery and see photos of all upcoming Geneva debuts and stay tuned for more news throughout the week.